Ryan K. had a beef with my leniency on Marco Killingsworth yesterday. So I decided to do a little investigating. How does Killingsworth’s TORate compare with other high usage players around the country? There are 27 players that have used over 30% of their team’s possessions (minimum 40% minutes played).

Here are the most turnover prone of those 27.

Player                   TORate
Robinson, Rhode Island    26.3
Gordon, Stetson           26.1
Owens, UT San Antonio     25.9
Farmar, UCLA              25.8
Killingsworth, Indiana    25.3
Smith, E. Tenn St.        24.5
Smith, Colorado St.       23.1
Singletary, UVa           22.8
Mensah, Siena             22.5
Guions, NC A&T            22.4

This makes me wonder why Jordan Farmar is occasionally celebrated. Sure he piles up assists, but he commits a lot of turnovers and is an ordinary shooter (47% eFG).

For your curiosity, here are the ultra-high usage players that commit the fewest turnovers.

Player                   TORate
Tucker, Wisconsin         11.3
Morrison, Gonzaga         11.6
Polk, Butler              12.0
Powe, Cal                 12.8
Johnson, Jackson St.      13.7
Clark, St. Peter's        15.1
Blair, Liberty            15.1
Booker, SE Missouri St.   15.3
Rush, Grambling           15.3
Brown, San Jose St.       15.6

I had doubts about whether someone who spends as much time in traffic as Killingsworth does could have a low TORate, but if you’ve seen Leon Powe play at all, you know he spends little time outside the paint.

The interesting thing for me is that ultra-high usage players have a slightly lower TORate as a group than your run-of-the-mill high usage players. Killingsworth has the 5th highest TORate out of 28 players with a usage above 30%. If we expand the sample to players with a usage greater than 25%, he ranks 35th out of 327, which based on the sample size is a little worse.

Needless to say, Indiana’s offense will be that much more efficient if Killingsworth’s teammates become more involved in the offense. It really could be the one thing that keeps them from a deep tournament run.

                           FG    3pt  FT    Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A   O-T  A F S TO BLK Pts
Nik Caner-Medley       39  8-12  2-2 15-16  4-9  0 2 1  4  1   33
Result: Win. Maryland 86, Georgia Tech 74.

If this Nik Caner-Medley plays the rest of the season, Maryland won’t miss Chris McCray much.